This series is designed to make available to a wider readership health studies prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language - English or French - with a summary in the other.

This study assesses the potential of the concept of “mortality amenable to health care” as an indicator
of outcome for health care systems. It presents estimates of the mortality amenable to health care in 31
OECD countries for the period 1997-2007. It measures the sensitivity of this indicator to the list of death
causes considered to be “amenable to care” by comparing results obtained from two leading lists. It then
presents the advantages of this indicator over indicators of general mortality, as well as its limitations.